Oregon’s election system got something of a raw deal in a new state-by-state ranking of “election performance,” a spokesman for Secretary of State Kate Brown said Tuesday.

The problem, said Tony Green, is that the report by the Pew Charitable Trusts lumps Oregon’s first-in-the-nation vote-by-mail system with states that offer absentee voting.

“I just don’t think comparing those all in one group is a fair comparison,” Green said.

He was reacting to a report issued Tuesday by the Washington, D.C.-based nonprofit research center that ranked Oregon 23rd among states for how it handles elections -- a middling judgment for a state that takes pride in election innovation.

Green said the center dinged Oregon for how many ballots go unreturned during an election. Oregon, which mails out 2.2 million ballots in a general election, has a much higher number of unreturned ballots than states that allow mail voting only for a relative handful who request an absentee ballot.

Eliminate the category from the 17 factors Pew considered, Green said, and Oregon rises to 10th in the nation. That’s a more accurate way to measure how vote-by-mail affects the state’s elections, he said.

“It’s just a very different system,” Green said.

Pew officials didn’t directly address Green’s concerns in an emailed response, but they defended their methods.

“The purpose of the index is to be able to assist policy makers in determining the actual effects on a variety of policies, including vote by mail, absentee voting, early voting, etc.,” said David Becker, director of Pew’s election initiatives. “We hope the index will spur conversations as to whether any particular policy choice is right in a particular state.”

Becker went on to say that Oregon “is a very strong performer.”

Green said the report pointed out some barriers to registering to vote in Oregon. He said Brown plans to submit legislation next year that would use driver license records to automatically register nearly all eligible voters in the state, allowing them to opt out if they choose.

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